Leslie McDonald, sitting next to Joel James, posted this airport picture on Instagram early Wednesday.

Tar Heels' trip to Atlanta gets off to rough start

North Carolina's basketball team traveled to Atlanta on Tuesday night, a day before the team's scheduled tip-off at Georgia Tech (11-9, 2-5 ACC).

The snowstorm that has caused heavy traffic jams in Atlanta affected the Tar Heels (12-7, 2-4). They arrived in the city before midnight but couldn't immediately depart the airport.

Stuck at airport... working on transportation to hotel... Atlanta area interstates are gridlocked...stay tuned #winter travel fun

— Carolina Basketball (@UNC_Basketball) January 29, 2014

Point guard Marcus Paige posted this tweet at 12:43 a.m.

Craziest day ever in my career here at UNC. Still stuck at a train station..

— Marcus Paige (@marcuspaige5) January 29, 2014

At 1:08 a.m., assistant coach Steve Robinson tweeted that the team was finally moving in the right direction.

On the Marta! #teamtravel #unchoops

— Steve Robinson (@heelscoach) January 29, 2014

About 35 minutes later, the team finally reached its hotel.

Last coach and staff arrived on foot to hotel at 145 am...nice little six block walk from train... thank goodness for MARTA!

— Carolina Basketball (@UNC_Basketball) January 29, 2014

What a night! Finally going to sleep.

— Brice Johnson (@bjohnson_23) January 29, 2014

The UNC-Georgia Tech matchup is still scheduled for 7 p.m. (per an 8:15 a.m. update), but the travel issues make this road trip even more challenging for the Tar Heels, who are entering a critical stretch of winnable games. That's obviously a small concern in the big picture given that people have been stuck in cars and cold conditions.

Former North Carolina guard Bobby Frasor, the director of basketball operations at UAB, did inject some humor into the situation when he replied to one of Paige's tweets.

@marcuspaige5 back when I played, Tyler Hansbrough would have plowed the streets and towed the bus to the hotel.

— Bobby Frasor (@BFrasor) January 29, 2014

UNC coach Roy Williams is no stranger to gridlock.

Georgia Tech media relations director Dean Buchan, who worked at Kansas in the 1990s and was still stuck in Atlanta traffic as of 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, said a Williams-coached KU team arrived at the Meadowlands about 20 minutes before tip-off of a 1995-96 game against Temple because of pre-Christmas traffic in Manhattan.

The Jayhawks were playing in the inaugural Jimmy V Classic in East Rutherford, N.J., on a Friday night, and Temple won 74-66 in overtime. Jerod Haase scored 30 points, but he was the only Kansas player in double figures.

According to Buchan, Williams delivered this message to his team: Life sometimes presents challenges. Now let's go play.

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